H eadlines
More and more evidence that has been examined by highly qualified
experts shows clearly that the single-bullet theory is an absurdity and
that there had to have been two shooters, and one of the shots was fired
from the front, behind the picket fence on the grassy knoll.”
DR. CYRIL WECHT
“The JFK Assassination
Detected: An Analysis by Forensic
Pathologist Cyril Wecht”
Courtesy of Exposit Books
conferences. Having presented his views
on the JFK assassination almost
1,000 times, and reaching
myriad listeners, Wecht, 90, is
now reiterating his position to a
new audience.

In November, Exposit
Books published “The JFK
Assassination Detected: An
Analysis by Forensic Pathologist
Cyril Wecht.” The 307-page
work, co-authored by Dawna
Kaufmann, describes every-
thing from Kennedy’s autopsy
and the eventual disappear-
ance of the president’s brain
to Wecht’s experiences having
lunch with Marina Oswald (the
late wife of Lee Harvey Oswald)
and consulting on Oliver Stone’s
Oscar-winning 1991 film “JFK.”
Wecht said he spent almost
six years writing the text and
considers the book the most
important work he’s authored,
followed closely by his autobi-
ography, “The Life and Deaths
of Cyril Wecht: Memoirs of
America’s Most Controversial
Forensic Pathologist,” which
was published in September,
also by Exposit Books.

Functioning as both a report
on the president’s assassination
and a catalog of Wecht’s travels
throughout the decades, “The
JFK Assassination Detected”
shares insights into the mind of
one of the United States’ leading
forensic pathologists.

Having received his medical
degree from the University
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM of Pittsburgh and a law
degree from the University
of Maryland, Wecht served
as county commissioner and
Allegheny County coroner
and medical examiner, as well
as president of the American
College of Legal Medicine,
the American Academy of
Forensic Sciences, chairman
of the board of trustees of
the American Board of Legal
Medicine and the American
College of Legal Medicine
Foundation. During almost a half-cen-
tury of work, Wecht performed
more than 21,000 autopsies and
“reviewed, consulted on and
signed off on another 41,000
death cases,” including those
of Martin Luther King Jr.,
Elvis Presley, JonBenét Ramsey
and Kurt Cobain. He has held
academic appointments at
the University of Pittsburgh
Schools of Medicine, Dental
Medicine and Graduate School
of Public Health, and the
Duquesne University School of
Law, School of Pharmacy and
School of Health Sciences.

Wecht said he remains vexed
by those who subscribe to the
Warren Commission findings.

“More and more with each
passing year, my frustration
and my anger grow because of
the fact that the government
continues to get away with this,”
Wecht said.

There was a brief moment of
hope that the government might
change course, Wecht said.

In April 1992, following
the release of Oliver Stone’s
“JFK,” the filmmaker addressed
the House
Government Operations
Subcommittee on Legislation and National
Affairs regarding classified
files relating to JFK’s assassina-
tion. Wecht said Stone’s efforts
were instrumental in Congress
passing the “President John F.

Kennedy Assassination Records
Collection Act of 1992.”
According to the act,
“all Government records
concerning the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy
should carry a presumption of
immediate disclosure, and all
records should be eventually
disclosed to enable the public
to become fully informed about
the history surrounding the
assassination.” Despite the legislation,
however, the government still
has not released all of the
relevant materials, Wecht said.

President Donald Trump
seemed poised to release the
documents when he tweeted on
Oct. 21, 2017: “Subject to the
receipt of further information,
I will be allowing, as President,
the long blocked and classi-
fied JFK FILES to be opened.”
Nevertheless, Trump reversed
course, citing national security
concerns. On Dec. 15, a trove of
almost 1,500 documents
was released by the National
Archives. Researchers, however,
described the materials as
“underwhelming,” according to
CNN. Wecht likewise called the
documents “utterly worthless.”
President Joe Biden said the
more-than-10,000 unreleased
or partially redacted documents
could be declassified as early
as December, but Wecht isn’t
holding his breath.

“They’ll still play the same
game,” he said. “I don’t think
JEWISH EXPONENT
that they’re going to disclose
everything that is there.”
In his quest to refute the
Warren Commission’s findings,
Wecht has been called a
conspiracy theorist
and regarded as a rejecter of govern-
ment truths — in his new book
he includes a related chapter
on debating the late Sen. Arlen
Specter, who, after serving as
assistant counsel for the Warren
Commission, continuously
promoted the “single-bullet
theory.” Wecht doesn’t mind being
described as a conspiracy
theorist. Apart from the scien-
tific evidence supporting his
beliefs about the JFK assassi-
nation, he said that Americans
have come to learn much about
the government’s clandestine
affairs, including those during
World War II, Vietnam and the
Korean War.

It’s no longer inconceivable
that elected representatives are
capable of acting nefariously,
Wecht said. “Government
officials can get away with
things.” “I want people to lose their
naivete, their belief that these
kinds of things can never
happen in America, to be
aware of this,” he said. l
Adam Reinherz is a staff writer for
the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle, an
affiliated publication of the Jewish
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